David Holdsworth, the controller of BBC English Regions, has admitted that the previously unthinkable prospect of BBC and ITV journalists working together will mean a "real change in culture" in the traditional story-chasing regional broadcast news environment.

Holdsworth sent an email to staff today following the BBC announcement of proposals for partnerships with commercial public service broadcasters, including sharing regional news resources with ITV.

"If you've spent an entire career trying to beat ITV to a story there is a lot to take in here, and if this happens it will be a real change in culture for us," he added.

Holdsworth said the proposals were an "ambitious idea", but one that would "put regional news at the heart of the overall BBC offer for a very long time to come and make our own broadcasting centres more important in local communities".

He summed up the three main ideas as sharing buildings with other broadcasters – most likely ITV – although he admitted that co-location would not go so far as sharing studios.

The second idea would be to have a combined satellite truck fleet to provide a live service for the BBC and other broadcasters, again most likely ITV.

A proposal would be to offer "pooled" raw material from diary stories to ITV, and others, "in the same way that royal visits might be covered".

Holdsworth promised that if the proposals do come to fruition the BBC would continue to set its "own agenda, deliver our own original journalism and innovate for our audiences".

In its 20-page document outlining the PSB partnership proposals, the BBC said that any sharing of resources would "stop short at reducing plurality".

"The benefits could potentially accrue to other providers of local and regional news beyond ITV, were obligations or providers to change," the Helping Sustain UK PSB document added.

A series of "safeguards" would be put in place to ensure "appropriate separation" and the threat of reduced plurality could be instituted, according to the BBC.

These include expanding the "volume and choice of news material available", sharing content to allow new players, such as local newspapers, to enter the video news market.

The BBC also proposes creating "large regional news centres" that would eventually work with educational, community and training bodies.

BBC director general Mark Thompson today said that the BBC was talking to one newspaper group about sharing video content, adding that this could be expanded to other publishers if it proved successful.

The BBC has proposed a range of partnerships with other public service broadcasters, including sharing iPlayer technology and developing a new internet-enabled digital TV set-top box. By Leigh Holmwood